Firespitter
Sure, you all laugh now, a Goblin that spits fire! What’s next? A Giant that farts rainbows? But as true as th’wart on my nose, it was there. Overview Firespitter is a character your opponent simply cannot ignore. He dominates a large portion of the board with his powerful Fireblast ability and forces your opposition’s characters to either keep at a safe distance (which is great for you as it will allow you to harvest stones in safety!) or close in and engage him fast. Offense Firespitter’s offensive ability is entirely down to his Fireblast ability – and what an offensive ability it is! 2X damage is excellent and with his Arcane stat of 5 he can hit quite reliably, even when targeting usually difficult to hit characters such as Faeries (with their Evade -2) or models in Heavy Cover. However the strongest feature of Fireblast is it deals Magical damage bypassing the vast majority of damage reduction abilities. Character like Fancyhat who are normally well protected in their Plate Armour will suddenly feel very exposed. Resilience Firespitter has moderate resilience to enemy ranged attacks. He has a relatively high number of Wds for a Goblin and Ramshackle Armour reducing most incoming Dmg by -1 which is very nice. However, these advantages are somewhat cancelled out by having +1 Evade (instead of the more usual Goblin stat of -1), making him much more likely to be hit and by bigger Dmg numbers in the first place. Fireblast has a short/moderate 11” total threat range (Slow 2” Jog, 1” Step + 8” range of the ability) under typical circumstances and cannot be used while Firespitter is engaged. This often means you’ll only get off one shot before the enemy manages to get up in your business and Melee is where things really fall apart for Firespitter; with a Melee Stat of only 2 and Predictable Combatant he’s going to get destroyed by even the most mediocre of fighters. If you want to stay alive and fire again you’ll need a plan. Friendly models with repositioning abilities such as Mc Boom and Seasick Steve can help out here. If you abandon him to face the enemy alone he is unlikely to last very long. Harvesting There are much better options to pick up Moonstones with than Firespitter. His position on the board really dictates your opponents actions but being Slow, you will usually be forced to spend energy during early turns to get into optimum positions and later you will want to use the energy for Fireblast or reaction steps if things aren’t going your way. To top it all off, Firespitter will be a prime target for assassination and is too slow to avoid a beating so any stones you do collect with him are likely to be lost before the game is over. Support & Control As previously mentioned, Firespitter has quite a powerful ‘control’ effect on the game state, simply by the threat he poses. He also has a situational ability Two Goblins walk into a Tavern which grants +1 energy to two friendly goblins. This isn’t an ability you will want to use regularly as it make’s the two targets vulnerable to enemy Arcane attacks with +2 Evade and your energy is usually best kept on Firespitter himself, but there are situations where just one more energy on a friendly character (for example to harvest a loose stone or enable the use of a Healing action) can be game winning. Tips, Tricks and Troupe Builds Although its often hard to pull off due to pressure from the enemy, if you can manage to get Firespitter up to 4 Energy, enabling Fireblast to be used twice, this can be absolutely devastating. Look to pair him with characters that can reliably provide that +1 energy boost such as Shabaroon and Seasick Steve. Seasick Steve’s Bawdy Jokes, can can work double duty, first extracting Firespitter from and engagement, and then allow him to fire twice at the enemy he just broke away from. However this only really works when the engaging enemy is exhaused (no energy tokens remaining) and is away from friendly models who could move in to support. Shabaroon’s Transcobobulate is also a very powerful option in conjunction with Firspitter as you may be able to extract Firespitter from an unpleasant melee and into an upper story building, where his is likely to be able to fire down on nearby enemies, safe from pesky melee fighters for the remainder of the game (probably) and with the Elevated Position bonuses (+2” range and ignoring Light Cover penalty). Another cute trick is to deliberately blow Firespitter up by triggering his Fireblast catastrophe on purpose. If you find him surrounded by enemies and with little chance of survival, this might be an appealing option as it deals 4 Magical Dmg to every model within a 3” radius. If your going for this tactic, firing at a character with a ‘+’ Evade increases your chances of drawing the catastrophe. Alternatively, you can run Firespitter headlong into a crowd of enemies and then try and detonate him with Shabaroon’s Goblin Luck a little later in the turn. This can be particularly good against low Wd, high Evade Faeries who can be hard to hit with direct attacks. Firespitter is a superb choice for many troupes but you might want to avoid choosing him if your opponent has any fast moving melee fighters such as Billy as these can shut him down and take him out very easily before he ever gets a chance to fire.